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How To Think About Iran's Nuclear Program Updated: 2012-02-10 11:00:00 Description: Like some predatory colonial power of the not-so-distant past the U.S. seems to think that war might solve our problems with Iran. But it couldn't. Instead, we need the imagination, and courage, to find a compromise. To help us make our way we're ex...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Whither Korea? Updated: 2012-02-03 11:00:00 Description: The North Koreans aren't stupid. Nor are they brainwashed ideological zombies. Their main problem is that for the past sixty some years they've been at war with the U.S., a war the U.S. either doesn't want or know how to end. But might a changing of...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Nuclear Nihilism Updated: 2012-01-27 11:00:00 Description: Few people know more about nuclear power than a former Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, especially the one who had the lead in responding to Three Mile Island. So when Dr. Victor Gilinsky suggests that it would be reasonable for th...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD One of Our Other Cold Wars Updated: 2012-01-20 11:00:00 Description: As is typical of situations involving post-WWII imperial over-reach, U.S. distress with Iran is largely our own fault. If the CIA had not overthrown Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 — Operation Ajax — and if afterward the U.S. had not incessan...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Seeking Economic Truth Updated: 2011-11-25 11:00:00 Description: John Maynard Keynes understood that economics describes human beings, a fact that modern mainstream economics — the applied theory of "rational expectations" — effectively assumes away. Keynes' biographer, Lord Robert Skidelsky, reminds ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Accelerated Ideas Updated: 2011-11-18 11:00:00 Description: When a retired four star Admiral provides support for nuclear arms control and a few other commendable things, the proper interrogatory is "yes." Or "yes, Sir." A gentleman with a friendly disposition and a cautious but lightning fast mind, Admiral ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Codebreaker Updated: 2011-11-11 11:00:00 Description: In celebration of Veterans Day, here's a question: What if the U.S. had lost the battle of Midway? Mercifully, we'll never know. But the U.S. victory could not have happened without the codebreaking skill and the unflinching courage — a relent...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Made in America Updated: 2011-11-04 11:00:00 Description: Since elected officials don't seem so interested, around the country local groups are organizing to promote the reindustrialization of America. One of these is SFMade. Robin McRoskey Azevedo is on the board of SFMade and is also President and owner ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Illusion of Free Markets Updated: 2011-10-28 11:00:00 Description: Let's take the long view. We're unconsciously mired in unexamined 18th century beliefs that color our perceptions in unexpected — and exceedingly harmful — ways. Take one, for example: as Dr. Bernard Harcourt suggests, our notion of a "f...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Art of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience Updated: 2011-10-21 11:00:00 Description: John Stewart, voted the most influential environmental activist in Britain in 2008, who led the successful movement to block a third runway at London's Heathrow airport, was scheduled to be on a speaking tour around America just about now. U.S. immi...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Art of Writing Updated: 2011-10-14 11:00:00 Description: If you want to understand the Zeitgeist you could do worse than to read a mystery novel. But not all mystery novels are the same. A few being extraordinarily carefully crafted — every word, seemingly, playing its intended role. Every missing w...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Wake Up, Earth! Updated: 2011-10-07 11:00:00 Description: It wasn't that long ago that "We may be alone in the universe" was a respectable scientific position to take. Now we know, however, that there are plenty of other earthlike planets, that the probability of intelligent life out there is overwhelming,...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Fighting the Lobby Updated: 2011-09-30 11:00:00 Description: To be honest, the Lobby probably cannot be defanged until Israel ceases to be an apartheid state. That may take a while. Nevertheless, caring, ethical, smart Americans have a responsibility to try to block the Lobby from using Washington as its enfo...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Money & Politics Updated: 2011-09-23 11:00:00 Description: This one is something of a walkabout. Dr. Thomas Ferguson has kept his eye on a critical part of our problem — money buying political power — something that far too many (indeed most) political scientists discount in favor of public opin...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Professional Updated: 2011-09-16 11:00:00 Description: For twenty years Bill Schneider was CNN's senior political analyst. Always cheerful, he helped to keep them in the reality-based community. Bill readily acknowledges that the U.S. political system is dysfunctional but he doesn't see any viable (stru...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Praxis Updated: 2011-09-09 11:00:00 Description: I've admired David Swanson for a number of years. He's one of the most active progressive activists I know — indeed, both astonishingly productive and absolutely on message. Since he gets out and about all the time, and I don't, it was a real ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Lie Updated: 2011-09-02 11:00:00 Description: We're lucky to have Dr. John J. Mearsheimer to apply his original powers of observation to the practice of lying in international politics. John develops a theoretical typology, finding five sorts of strategic lies — from lies governments tell...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Where's the Strategy? Updated: 2011-08-26 11:00:00 Description: It's disappointing, to say the least, that after ten years in Afghanistan we seem not to have a strategy, or at least a strategy people can easily discern, one that's related to known U.S. national security interests. Whatever U.S. policy is, if it ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Permanent Aridification Transforms the American Southwest Updated: 2011-08-19 11:00:00 Description: It's happening now but we won't be able to say with absolute certainty that it's happened for probably another couple of decades. Thanks to anthropogenic climate change the American Southwest is entering a new, and permanent, condition of increased ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Debt Doldrums Updated: 2011-08-12 11:00:00 Description: Barack Obama and John Boehner probably worked out most of it over golf. What political theater! And why is it you never hear of Nancy Pelosi on the links? To talk about the so-called "debt ceiling" crisis I turned to Charles Tiefer, a former General...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Art of Courage Updated: 2011-07-08 11:00:00 Description: A little voice in your conscience tells you something. You listen. You start to think maybe you're right and everybody else is wrong. You do something about it. Next thing you know you're in a life and death struggle against evil forces bent on worl...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Wild Dollar Updated: 2011-07-01 11:00:00 Description: Because the public hasn't had what's happening properly reported, the Republicans think that, in the debt ceiling standoff, they can trample democratic norms and perhaps even go so far as to trigger another collapse of the world economy. What a biza...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Göbekli Tepe Updated: 2011-06-24 11:00:00 Description: At what point does an original idea engender action? And to what extent does that action set a lasting course? We can examine the social history of an idea, written, as it were, in stone, at Göbekli Tepe, an archeological site approximately 11,...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Athenian Zephyr Updated: 2011-06-17 11:00:00 Description: Neoliberal bankers wants to turn the Greek public into chattel. The Greek public objects. It's a theoretically long-predicted fork in the road for the European Union: either Greece defaults (it could have been any one of certain member states) and t...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Forgetting Vietnam Updated: 2011-06-10 11:00:00 Description: America's final retreat from Vietnam could have been a whole lot worse. Ambassador Graham Martin, mistakenly thought to be on the last chopper out, didn't follow through on the fact that he left a final contingent of Marine Security Guards on the Em...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Constitutional Chains Updated: 2011-06-03 11:00:00 Description: The U.S. Constitution has not led to a more perfect union. In some ways — see the Civil War — it was a suicide pact. So must it, indeed, be the only legitimate political expression of who we are as Americans? To think about some of the f...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD It Became Necessary to Destroy Libya In Order to Save It Updated: 2011-05-27 11:00:00 Description: At some point the blood-thirsty hawks who got us into a war against Libya must realize that, with Col. Gaddafi or without him, the various Libyan tribes and factions do not mean to settle their differences amicably. What then? Do we admit a strategi...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Science of Interrogation Updated: 2011-05-20 11:00:00 Description: Memory is such an elusive thing. Not the sort of thing you can pound out of a person's skull. If you want access to a person's memories, to accurate memories, they must be given freely. If you want a false confession for propaganda purposes then use...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Wherefore Bradley Manning? Updated: 2011-05-13 11:00:00 Description: Punishing Bradley Manning before he's even had a trial doesn't make sense. It's unjust, it's immoral, and later on it will tend to make it more difficult to establish the facts. To talk about Manning's case and related issues, including so-called "h...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Possibilistic Judgment Updated: 2011-05-06 11:00:00 Description: Sometimes, putting a name to a thing is an essential precondition to making sense of it. Dr. Lee Clarke has done that with a branch of risk analysis that we unthinkingly subsume under common sense but then fail to apply when confronted with spurious...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD America's Exceptional Amnesia Updated: 2011-04-29 11:00:00 Description: America may well be the only country in the world to have experienced full-scale modern warfare upon its territory but then, as a matter of national identity, to have failed to establish a coherent narrative explanation. For a set of fresh eyes I tu...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Industrial Beginnings Updated: 2011-04-22 11:00:00 Description: In the absence of a strong industrial base, says Dr. Jefferson Cowie, it's still possible to build a healthy labor movement. I disagree. But it's complicated. So this is a somewhat frustrating exchange for me because, first, I can see that Jeff's he...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD An Anthropologist At Large Updated: 2011-04-15 11:00:00 Description: This one meanders. We start with Japan's nuclear power crisis, commiserate over America's political failures, and end up talking about the risks inherent in maintaining large inventories of nuclear weapons. An anthropologist specialized in nuclear c...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Imperfect (Nuclear) Implementation Updated: 2011-04-08 11:00:00 Description: Humans cannot engineer a perfect technology for nuclear power, one that presents zero risk. Nor can humans engineer a political process that enforces constant, rigorous, indefinitely long-term oversight on imperfect nuclear power solutions. The choi...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Tell Me About the Future Updated: 2011-04-01 11:00:00 Description: Nuclear power isn't safe. Oil and gas will run out — sooner, rather than later. Coal is, well, no solution either. Carbon, let's face it, is killing the planet. Realistically, we don't have much choice other than to move to renewable energy, b...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Death and Life Updated: 2011-03-25 11:00:00 Description: You can't put dead souls under a microscope. But, then, it's not so easy to put live ones under a microscope, either. Perhaps there's a little bit of death in every life and, I daresay, maybe in death there's a little bit of life. Where's the balanc...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD High Stakes Updated: 2011-03-18 11:00:00 Description: The Obama administration has yet to explain, apart from vague humanitarian concerns, whether a direct U.S. national security interest is at stake in Libya's internal strife. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton is waffling her way toward war. What this cou...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD A Sweet Voice of Reason Updated: 2011-03-11 11:00:00 Description: There's nobody I would rather have on my side in a meeting than Dr. Alton Frye, a former president of Council on Foreign Relations. Even if you disagree with him — and even if he's wrong — Alton is so pleasant, reasonable, and diplomatic...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Anthrax Letters Updated: 2011-03-04 11:00:00 Description: Without the anthrax letter attacks in September-October 2001 it's quite possible — indeed, likely — that the Patriot Act would not have become law. Coincidence, or conspiracy? I've always been skeptical of the "lone nut" theory because, ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD A Dialectical Moment in Madison? Updated: 2011-02-25 11:00:00 Description: The U.S. plutocracy won't feel safe until it's crushed all resistance. Case in point, the organized way the plutocrats set their sights on Wisconsin — the birthplace of public sector unions — hoping that Scott Walker, the newly elected R...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Truth About Taxes Updated: 2011-02-18 11:00:00 Description: In the economics profession, a "Harberger's triangle" shows the "deadweight loss" to society from taxes, the net loss, that is, from the optimum "free-market" equilibrium. It's a great, great theory if you're a math whiz. And virtually all neoclassi...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD In Search Of Egypt Updated: 2011-02-11 11:00:00 Description: I worry about the fate of violent insurrections (don't kid yourselves, Egyptian mobs are not non-violent). I worry about young, educated demonstrators with an overwrought passion for U.S. government support (it seems inauthentic). I worry that witho...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD The Story of Our Lives Updated: 2011-02-04 11:00:00 Description: We need to pay more attention to the world around us. It's not easy. We're constantly bombarded by interruptions, in large part due to the way we've organized ourselves around technology. But if we can't stay focused we lose the ability to create an...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Good Sense and Nonsense Updated: 2011-01-28 11:00:00 Description: Neoliberal economics lacks imagination. And the story it tells of greedy individuals maximizing their self-interest is — or should be — an insult to decent people everywhere. The fact that we can accept such a preposterous story so uncri...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD From Boom to Bust and Back Again Updated: 2011-01-21 11:00:00 Description: It's no accident that the White House won't regulate the banks. In our plutocratic system the White House is their wholly owned and fully brain-washed subsidiary, the only question being how best to pretend otherwise. To discuss various matters invo...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD |
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